HTC Desire 510 boasts affordable 4G

HTC has launched its most affordable 4G smartphone to date, the HTC Desire 510. Here’s our run-down of the specs, plus UK price and release date.

HTC is joining the cheap 4G smartphone wars with its Desire 510 handset, a £149 phone that supports 4G LTE for nippy web browsing and media streaming. The 4.7-inch HTC Desire 510 sports some decent specs for the price and should hit UK stores in September.

So far we like the look of the HTC Desire 510, with its polycarbonate body rocking some slick rounded edges. It may not come in as many colours as other budget 4G offerings like the Nokia Lumia 635, but the white, black, gray and blue models all look quite sleek.

Android 4.4 KitKat is skinned by HTC’s BlinkFeed interface, so once again you get a constant stream of social media updates and headlines right there on your desktop. Sadly there’s no BoomSound stereo speakers on the front of the phone, and no word on how good that rear camera is.

The HTC Desire 510 is one of the first phones to be powered by Qualcomm’s 64-bit Snapdragon 410 processor, and we’d expect decent performance for an Android handset. The 8GB of on-board storage can be boosted by a microSD memory card too, for carrying around tons of photos, movies and music.

Although the HTC Desire 510 comes at a great price, you can already bag yourself a nifty 4G phone for under £100. The EE Kestrel just squeezes into that price bracket at £99, while the Alcatel One Touch Pop S3 is just £80. Of course, the Desire 510 offers some cool and unique features for that extra cost, which hopefully will make it a worthwhile purchase.

HTC has been concentrating on the more premium end of the market recently, putting out a Windows Phone version of its all-metal HTC One M8 smarthphone. It’s good to see another mid-range mobile from the Taiwanese giant, and we’re hoping the Desire 510 can match the Desire 601‘s slick design and usability.

We’ll hopefully bring you a full hands-on review of the HTC Desire 510 from IFA 2014 next week.